The Past Lost So That the Future May be Found

subcultures

Banchō (fashion and attitude): properly only refers to the leader of a boy gang. The term’s mostly vestigial at this point.

Bosozoku: (fashion) youth who go in for a very motorcycle-racer image.

Cosplayers: (fashion) much like America, pop-culture cosplayers generally wear their costumes at events. Sometimes you can find cosplayers in Harajuku (between Shinjuku and Shibuya), especially near Yoyogi park.

Freeter/furīta: (situational) unemployed/unemployed/intentionally non-career workers. More a “fall through” than a true subculture, but some – especially Changelings – may fall into or choose the freeter life.

Otaku: (interests) someone with an obsessive level of interest in a subject, often anime or manga but can be other subjects. Considered insulting (though this is changing as more self-identify with the term, similar to geek in the USA)

Reki-jo: (interests) female history buffs. Serious history buffs. To the tune of $725 million USD per year of economic activity. Considered a form of otaku.

Rockabilly: (fashion) there’s actually an association of people who dress like 50’s greasers (as opposed to the US where it’s more crossover with swing and zoot suits). The Tokyo Rockabilly Club meets in Yoyogi park on Sundays.

Street Fashion: (fashion) more of a mashup of cosmopolitan streetwear than anything; highly individualistic.

Sukeban: (fashion and attitude) properly only references the leader of a girl gang, the same style and attitude are mirrored by the other delinquent girls in the gang. They generally go for dyed and/or permed hair, modified school uniforms (colored socks, longer skirts, rolled sleeves). They’re purported to be involved in petty crimes and violence, but if arrested there’s a tendency to charge them with “pre-delinquency” instead of actual crimes.